C2 Part8

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P – Chapter 2.7

P – Chapter 2.8

Liang Sizhe pulled out his key and unlocked the door, the two of them going inside. Cao Ye sat down onto the bed next to the window and looked at Liang Sizhe, the sweat on his forehead from running glistening under the direct light of the setting sun in the room. He pulled out his docile pretence again, looking like a teenager who was harmless to both humans and animals, and said, “Ge, you have to help me out later when my dad comes. You definitely can’t say I wasn’t here these last few days.”

There was a liveliness to him, his body filled with energy. It was as though as soon as he appeared in this room, the chemical components of the room’s air changed.

As for what it changed into, Liang Sizhe couldn’t really say. He thought maybe he’d been alone for too long, and so wasn’t really used to staying in a room together with someone else.

And yet it didn’t sound quite right to say he felt strange. It was hard to detest that spirited air surrounding Cao Ye, even though he’d received that prank of a phone call the other night.

Liang Sizhe stood the guitar next to the wall, and when he straightened back up, he looked towards Cao Ye and asked, “You end up finding someone to sleep with you later that night?”

“Huh?” Cao Ye had originally forgotten about it already, remembering it now only after Liang Sizhe brought it up. Awkwardness appeared on his face as he said, “My friend was just playing around. Don’t listen to his nonsense.”

His voice had yet to disappear when a knock landed on the door. Cao Ye immediately shut up, both his hands clasping in front of his chest, and he gestured a please to Liang Sizhe with a troubled expression on his face.

Liang Sizhe walked over to open the door. Cao Xiuyuan stood right outside, Zheng Yin behind him.

Swinging the door slightly wider, he greeted, “Director Cao.”

Cao Xiuyuan was clearly unhappy. Even though he usually looked reserved and serious, compared to the night he had been in Liang Sizhe’s home, he was carrying some obvious anger today.

Following in behind him, Zheng Yin was putting in a good word for Cao Ye. “I was saying Xiao Ye would stay here obediently. They must’ve seen someone else…” As he spoke, he secretly threw a look at Cao Ye, who was sitting on the bed. “Xiao Ye, tell your dad yourself. What were you doing these last few nights?”

Cao Ye played along with him, pretending to be innocent and saying, “I haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve been here all along…”

Without waiting for him to finish, Cao Xiuyuan interrupted him, his voice as sudden as a clap of thunder. He angrily barked, “Piss off and go back home if you don’t want to be here!”

Cao Ye froze. After he realised what was happening, he too was a step away from exploding. He stood up, turned towards the door and loudly said, his voice filled with challenge, “Fine, I’ll piss off. You think I wanted to come here?”

Zheng Yin hurriedly grabbed his arm, not letting him leave. In a low voice, he urged, “Talk nicely. Your dad specifically came here to see you this time.”

“Specifically came here to see me?” Cao Ye let out a snort. “I’ve already been back for a month, and yet this is his first time to come see me!”

Liang Sizhe was standing by the door, watching. As an outsider, he consciously knew he shouldn’t be here, and so he opened the door and walked out, lightly shutting the door behind him.

Cao Xiuyuan glared at Cao Ye. He coldly said, “Zheng Yin, you go out too.”

“Oh…” Zheng Yin remained worried. Before he went out, he didn’t forget to softly remind Cao Ye, “Don’t be stubborn with your dad. Just admit you were wrong.”

The door closed, leaving inside the room only the pair of father and son opposing each other. Cao Ye turned his face away, his neck stiff and straight, and refused to look at Cao Xiuyuan.

With all of his effort, Cao Xiuyuan gentled his voice. “Where did you go these last few nights?”

At this moment, Cao Ye didn’t stoop to lying. He calmly said, “A bar.”

“Which bar?”

“Don’t you know?” By this point, Cao Ye had already guessed what was happening. Someone at the bar must’ve recognised him and tattled on him to Cao Xiuyuan, or else Cao Xiuyuan wouldn’t have suddenly rushed over here in a fit of rage.

Frowning, Cao Xiuyuan looked at him. “Just how old are you to go to that kind of place?!”

Cao Ye easily retorted back, “What’s the difference between you sending me here and that kind of place?”

“Leaving you here is so you can experience the lifestyle!” It would’ve been better if Cao Ye hadn’t brought it up; now that he did, Cao Xiuyuan’s anger rushed up again in an instant, his fury even stronger than before. A consecutive string of interrogations smashed down onto Cao Ye’s face. “Do you think acting is that easy?! Do you think it’s that easy to be an actor? Did you think I didn’t know about Zheng Yin giving you a secret copy of the script? How many pages have you read? Have you looked at it at all? Pull out the script Zheng Yin gave you — I want to see how much prep work you’ve done!”

Cao Ye didn’t speak, and neither did he move, planted stiffly in front of Cao Xiuyuan. Those few questions from Cao Xiuyuan prodded directly at his sore spots: he truly hadn’t pulled out the script yet, and he truly hadn’t looked at it even once. The things Zheng Yin said that day had floated lightly around his ears for a while, and then, lasting for only a short amount of time in novelty, they’d evaporated without a trace like mist in the early morning.

“Don’t think the role is yours just because I’m your dad. There’ll be auditions later, and you’ll be together with the other candidates. I won’t give you any special treatment. Zhou Ru really did write the script while thinking of you, so if you can’t take hold of such a good opportunity, I won’t give you any more chances again in the future.” Cao Xiuyuan’s voice cooled. He was even more brusque and harsh with his son than with any of his actors. “‘Liu Adou who could not hold anything up’1. If you haven’t heard of that story before, you can get your mum to tell you once you get back.”

Once he finished, Cao Xiuyuan didn’t attempt to reconcile at all. He turned around, opened the door and left.

Afraid the father and son would actually get into a fight, Zheng Yin had stayed outside the room the entire time, listening to the noises from inside.

When Cao Xiuyuan had said that last sentence, the vein at Zheng Yin’s temple had immediately throbbed and given him a headache: How could he have said something so ego-bruising to his own child…

Before he could decide on whether or not he should go in to ease the atmosphere, Cao Xiuyuan had already come out.

“Yuan-ge…” Zheng Yin’s heart trembled at seeing Cao Xiuyuan’s severe countenance, but he still summoned up the courage to catch his arm, refusing to let him go. He softly said, “Wouldn’t your sentence just then be a bit too much? Xiao Ye is still a child no matter how you look at him, you should hurry and comfort him…”

And then, before he finished speaking, a timid, accented voice rang out behind them. “Sirs, can you please move aside. I’m here to deliver food…”

Cao Xiuyuan flicked his eyes over to look at that waiter, his eyebrows drawing together even tighter. “What food?”

“Delivery. Every day…” Seeing Zheng Yin faintly shake his head at him, that waiter still stopped talking without conscious thought — even though he didn’t understand what Zheng Yin meant.

“Let me have a look.” Cao Xiuyuan took that paper bag. Upon seeing the elegantly packaged boxes of food within, he raised his hand and threw them heavily over to Zheng Yin’s chest. “Being waited on with such good food and drink every day, plus even emptying out such a large room — is this how you’re getting him to experience this lifestyle?” He left with a scowl on his face.

The force behind those boxes of food pushed Zheng Yin a step back, and as he watched Cao Xiuyuan’s retreating figure, he sighed and lowered his head to look at the food scattered all over the floor. He hastily said to the waiter, “Hurry and clean this up,” and then pushed open the door, peering inside to look at Cao Ye.

The sky was gradually darkening, the light in the room dim and heavy. Cao Ye was still standing in his original place, not having moved, and his chest was heaving up and down from anger like a young lion having entered combat readiness.

Zheng Yin was sure: if Cao Xiuyuan weren’t Cao Ye’s father, Cao Ye would’ve definitely pounced over and started throwing punches.

“Your ego must be hurt, eh?” Attempting to calm the air using a joke, Zheng Yin walked closer and turned his face over to look at Cao Ye. “Just look at how this small face is puffing from anger.”

Cao Ye ignored him. He went to sit onto his bed, falling sideways onto the pillow and then dragging the blanket up to cover his head.

“What?” Zheng Yin tugged at his blanket. “Are you crying?”

Cao Ye was still quite strong-willed at this moment, and he said, muffled inside his covers, “Whoever cries is a grandson2!”

Zheng Yin chuckled and then tried to persuade him, speaking in a warm voice. “All right, all right. It’s not like you’re not aware of your dad’s temper. As soon as that wicked temper flares up, he doesn’t give anyone face. You know Mr Yu, Yu Xin, right? He’s old enough to be someone’s grandfather, but on set, your dad still yelled at him like he was his grandson. When you start filming later, it’s pretty normal to get yelled at…”

And now, Cao Ye sullenly interrupted him. “I’m not going to act.”

“You would really let me down if you say something like that, Cao Ye. I’ve been a grandson in front of your dad for a good few days already because he discovered I sneaked you a copy of the script. But look at how your dad knows about it but hasn’t asked for the script back. He was even angry at you for not reading it — that means he really does intend for you to come act, doesn’t it?”

“I won’t act even if he tells me to.” Wrapped in his blanket, Cao Ye’s mouth remained stubborn.

“You’re still arguing? I would say this whole thing is your fault, too. You could’ve gone anywhere, but you had to go to a gay bar. Is that somewhere a child like you can go? I’ll call the police later and have them shut it down.”

“No, don’t!” Hearing this, Cao Ye shot up, shoving the covers back, and revealed the face flushed from the lack of air. “Lin Yan’s older brother opened that. Lin Yan only took me in because he saw I had nowhere else to go. I won’t have any face if you do that!”

Only now did Zheng Yin fully let out a breath in relief. He’d originally been somewhat worried that the reason Cao Ye had gone to the gay bar had been in connection to adolescent uncertainty, but now, he could see that they weren’t linked at all. “Then you promise me you won’t go there again,” Zheng Yin said.

“I won’t go if you give me money!” That was a sentence that came straight from Cao Ye’s heart. Since that night, his whole body felt uncomfortable whenever he thought about the feeling of being considered by other guys. Turning his face away, he muttered, “I went for only one night. Why is my luck so terrible to be caught by your people on that one night…”

After only just managing to placate Cao Ye, Zheng Yin then quickly left the room to chase after Cao Xiuyuan.

He’d been prepared for Cao Xiuyuan to have already driven away, abandoning him here, but unexpectedly, he saw that off-road car still parked in front of Lan Yan’s entrance as soon as he went downstairs. Cao Xiuyuan was sitting in the passenger seat, a scowl on his face as he smoked, the car window open.

The other tight puff of air in Zheng Yin’s chest released. Opening the door, he went inside, pulled over the seatbelt and said with a smile, “I thought you would’ve left.”

By now, Cao Xiuyuan’s face had already eased a fair bit. He asked, “Finished soothing?”

“How is he that easy to soothe… As godfather, I can’t take the place of his true father. Are you really not going to go back upstairs?”

“No.” Cao Xiuyuan always meant what he said, and he looked like he’d still yet to completely calm down. “You go ahead and keep spoiling him. You’ve spoiled him to this point; let’s see if he’ll be able to endure hardships later once he starts acting. The bowl of rice that is being an actor3 — even if you stuff it into his hand, he might not even be able to hold it.”

“Now that’s too much…” Zheng Yin drove as he continued speaking on Cao Ye’s behalf. “I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Xiao Ye hasn’t gone through any hardships, but you can’t say he can’t.”

“As if he can,” Cao Xiuyuan ruthlessly criticised Cao Ye. “His mum’s had him play the violin since he was a kid. But what has he achieved so far? If an actor isn’t willing to work hard, then the audience won’t believe in him and be willing to watch him. That’s the natural way of the world.”

Zheng Yin smiled, although inwardly, he thought: how was the current entertainment industry any way like the way Cao Xiuyuan described it? Actors who weren’t willing to work for it but were given plenty of work could be found everywhere. But he didn’t refute Cao Xiuyuan directly, only saying, “But he makes people like him. All of his friends like him, and Zhou Ru wrote a script for him just after seeing him once.”

Cao Xiuyuan coldly humphed. “What’s the use in that?”

“He’ll be really appealing to the general audience in the future,” Zheng Yin softly said, his gaze focused ahead. “Yuan-ge, you know — being able to make people like you is a gift that’s hard to find. None of us have that.”

Cao Xiuyuan reprimanded him disapprovingly. “You want him to enter the entertainment industry to be a likeable piece of trash?”

Translator has something to say:

This is 扶不起的刘阿斗. Liu Adou is the infant name of Emperor Liu Shan (223-263AD). He’s widely believed to have been a useless and incapable ruler, but his rule was surprisingly relatively blood-free. The belief is that his rule was mainly supported by his court as he went around indulging in pleasures and neglecting state affairs. Nowadays, calling someone ‘Adou’ means you believe they’re incapable and someone who can’t achieve anything without significant assistance. ↩Calling someone your grandson (孙子) in Chinese slang essentially means they’re lower than you in the totem pole (and so then needs to listen to you since you’re the ‘elder’). This is the opposite of getting someone to call you dad! ↩It’s pretty common to describe a profession as a ‘bowl of rice’ because you feed yourself using the money you’ve earned from working in that profession. ↩

P – Chapter 2.9

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